I bought 26 gauge floral wire to make Ivy leaves. The wire is painted green not covered in floral tape. When using green painted wire do you still wrap your wire with floral tape before making the flowers and leaves or is it not necessary?

Unless you got cloth covered or fabric covered wire, you will have issues getting your paste to attach and stay attached. Floral tape is to tape finished petals or flowers together... I don't know how much success you'll have if you attempt to wrap each wire in tape before inserting it into paste - my initial though is it will add too much bulk and you'd have to roll your leaves really thick, and I think you will still end up with spinning leaves from the paste not properly adhering to the wires.

If I were you I'd order/buy wire from a cake supply store that is paper covered (best) or fabric covered and take the other stuff back.

I agree w/all of what she ^^^ said.

Thank you.

You can now buy g/p wire and tape in a package in the wilton aisle. It is dk. green. I like that color for some things and the liter green for others. hth I have had them come in my class with wire from the florist section(on a roll) , didn,t like it, but didn,t say a word. I always use wire for making g/p flowers, etc.